Spin-State Transition and Metal-Insulator Transition in La1−x_{1-x}Eux_xCoO3_3}

We present a study of the structure, the electric resistivity, the magnetic susceptibility, and the thermal expansion of La$_{1-x}$Eu$_x$CoO$_3$. LaCoO$_3$ shows a temperature-induced spin-state transition around 100 K and a metal-insulator transition around 500 K. Partial substitution of La$^{3+}$ by the smaller Eu$^{3+}$ causes chemical pressure and leads to a drastic increase of the spin gap from about 190 K in LaCoO$_3$ to about 2000 K in EuCoO$_3$, so that the spin-state transition is shifted to much higher temperatures. A combined analysis of thermal expansion and susceptibility gives evidence that the spin-state transition has to be attributed to a population of an intermediate-spin state with orbital order for $x<0.5$ and without orbital order for larger $x$. In contrast to the spin-state transition, the metal-insulator transition is shifted only moderately to higher temperatures with increasing Eu content, showing that the metal-insulator transition occurs independently from the spin-state distribution of the Co$^{3+}$ ions. Around the metal-insulator transition the magnetic susceptibility shows a similar increase for all $x$ and approaches a doping-independent value around 1000 K indicating that well above the metal-insulator transition the same spin state is approached for all $x$.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure

Palaeomagnetic and synchrotron analysis of \u3e1.95 Ma fossil-bearing palaeokarst at Haasgat, South Africa

Palaeomagnetic analysis indicates that Haasgat, a fossil-bearing palaeocave in the Gauteng Province of South Africa, is dominated by reversed magnetic polarity in its oldest, deepest layers and normal polarity in the younger layers. The presence of in-situ Equus specimens suggests an age of less than ~2.3 Ma, while morphological analysis of faunal specimens from the ex-situ assemblage suggests an age greater than 1.8 Ma. Given this faunal age constraint, the older reversed polarity sections most likely date to the beginning of the Matuyama Chron (2.58–1.95 Ma), while the younger normal polarity deposits likely date to the very beginning of the Olduvai Sub-Chron (1.95–1.78 Ma). The occurrence of a magnetic reversal from reversed to normal polarity recorded in the sequence indicates the deposits of the Bridge Section date to ~1.95 Ma. All the in-situ fossil deposits that have been noted are older than the 1.95 Ma reversal, but younger than 2.3 Ma. Haasgat therefore dates to an interesting time period in South African human evolution that saw the last occurrence of two australopith species at ~2.05–2.02 Ma (Sts5 Australopithecus africanus from Sterkfontein Member 4) to ~1.98 Ma ( Australopithecus sediba from Malapa) and the first occurrence of early Homo (Sk847), Paranthropus and the Oldowan within Swartkrans Member 1 between ~2.0 Ma and ~1.8 Ma

Strongly Coupled Magnetic and Electronic Transitions in Multivalent Strontium Cobaltites

The topotactic phase transition in SrCoOx (x = 2.5-3.0) makes it possible to reversibly transit between the two distinct phases, i.e. the brownmillerite SrCoO2.5 that is a room-temperature antiferromagnetic insulator (AFM-I) and the perovskite SrCoO3 that is a ferromagnetic metal (FM-M), owing to their multiple valence states. For the intermediate x values, the two distinct phases are expected to strongly compete with each other. With oxidation of SrCoO2.5, however, it has been conjectured that the magnetic transition is decoupled to the electronic phase transition, i.e., the AFM-to-FM transition occurs before the insulator-to-metal transition (IMT), which is still controversial. Here, we bridge the gap between the two-phase transitions by density-functional theory calculations combined with optical spectroscopy. We confirm that the IMT actually occurs concomitantly with the FM transition near the oxygen content x = 2.75. Strong charge-spin coupling drives the concurrent IMT and AFM-to-FM transition, which fosters the near room-T magnetic transition characteristic. Ultimately, our study demonstrates that SrCoOx is an intriguingly rare candidate for inducing coupled magnetic and electronic transition via fast and reversible redox reactions

BAND-THEORY DESCRIPTION OF HIGH-ENERGY SPECTROSCOPY AND THE ELECTRONIC-STRUCTURE OF LICOO2

LiCoO2 can be viewed as the end member of the Li-doped LixCo1-xO2 system. It was suggested that this system exhibits a transition from high-spin Co ions in CoO to low-spin Co ions in LiCoO2. We present a systematic study of the electronic properties of LiCoO2 based on a density-functional calculation. From a good agreement between the theoretical results and the results of various spectroscopies (x-ray photoemission spectroscopy, bremsstrahlung isochromat spectroscopy, and x-ray absorption spectroscopy) we conclude that a one-particle band-structure approach is basically adequate for LiCoO2 while being still controversial for CoO) and we support the conclusion of low-spin Co ions in this compound

Correlation of proton MR spectroscopy and diffusion tensor imaging

Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (H-1-MRS) provides indices of neuronal damage. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) relates to water diffusivity and fiber tract orientation. A method to compare H-1-MRS and DTI findings was developed, tested on phantom and applied on normal brain. Point-resolved spectroscopy (T-R/T-E = 1500/135) was used for chemical shift imaging of a supraventricular volume of interest of 8x8x2 cm(3) (64 voxels). In DTI, a segmental spin-echo sequence (T-R/T-E = 5500/91) was used and slices were stacked to reproduce the slab used in MRS. The spatial distributions of choline and N-acetylaspartate (NAA) correlated to mean fractional anisotropy and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) for the inner 6x6 = 36 voxels defined in MRS, most notably NAA and ADC value (r = -.70,

BAND-STRUCTURE AND CLUSTER-MODEL CALCULATIONS OF LACOO(3) IN THE LOW-SPIN PHASE

We present band-structure and cluster-model calCulatiOns Of LaCoO3 in the low-spin phase. The purpose of these calculations is to contrast and complement the results and conclusions of recent spectroscopic studies. The total density of states (DOS) is compared to the photoemission spectrum; the agreement is very good except for the many-body satellites which appear at higher binding energies. The unoccupied O p DOS reproduces fairly well the O 1s x-ray-absorption spectrum; the main discrepancy appears in the Co 3d region and is attributed to core-hole effects. The ground state predicted by the cluster-model calculation is highly covalent and contains mainly 62% of t2g6 (1A1) and 36% of t2g6e(g)(2E)L. The first (one-electron) removal state has more 3d6L than 3d5 character whereas the first addition state is almost completely dominated by the 3d7 state. This means that low-spin LaCoO3 is in the charge-transfer regime and the optical band pp is of the p-d type. The Co 3d contribution to the photoemission spectrum calculated with the cluster-model reproduces not only the leading peaks but also the many-body satellites. The main drawback in this case is the absence of the spectral weight coming from the O 2p bands